Alexa can now be your default Android Assistant

Staff Member

In case you didn’t know it yet, it’s possible to select which Assist app, or Device Assistance App, pops up when you long press the home button. Depending on your phone, that would most likely default to “Enhanced Google services”. In short, Google Assistant. Amazon Alexa can now be set as an Android device’s default Assist app.

"But what’s the catch? The Assist app setting only applies to what assistant it launched when you long press the home button and nothing else. It doesn’t change what runs when you say “OK Google” and it would be weird if that trigger launched Alexa instead. For Pixel 2 owners, it also doesn’t change what the squeeze action launches by default either."

Also don't love that he claims you can change the assistant...shows a screenshot of having choices... but never explains how to actually get there to change it. Fail. Pretty sure you can actually change this on very few phones.